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Winging it

I seem to be in a bird mood today. Maybe because I feel like I’m winging it at the moment. Maybe we are all winging it in the middle of these circumstances beyond our control.

However, no deaths from Covid 19 for the second day running in our country Aotearoa, is encouraging. We are being urged to remain ‘cautiously optimistic’ and not to start throwing parties. I’m thinking – so what’s new? Aren’t I normally in a state of cautious optimism? This seems very familiar territory for me.

This photo shows a stilt feeding. I know this is bad, but I do not remember where I took it. It may have been at the inlet at the bottom of our road, but I cannot be sure about that. Usually the birds that feed there are black oyster catchers with the lipstick-red bill.

I do remember where the photo of these three pigeons was taken. At my daughter in law’s grandparent’s home in Northern Germany. Jenny’s grandfather is a pigeon fancier. The coo-ing and sudden swooping, wing-clatter of pigeons, interrupted every so often by the clacking beak of a stork nesting on a nearby centuries-old church spire, form part of my memory’s soundtrack of my visits to this pleasant place in the German countryside.

And this is a horse statue on Museum Island in the city of Berlin.

Travel is out of the question for quite some time because of the pandemic. There are many places I will miss until I can see them again … Berlin is one. Although, it did take me some time to grow fond. You can read more about ‘Berlin and Me’ (so to speak) in my new collection of poetry.